1. Upload the file

Go to your Account page in Admin (it is the link in the top right, next to Logout).

You should see a link "show uploaded files".

Once you click on that you will be taken to a page where you can upload your PDF

2. Grab the URL

After you upload the PDF, you will see the file listed at the top.

Click on the file and you will see the URL displayed on the left hand side. You now need to copy  the URL to the clipboard.

TIP: You can upload any type of file here, not just PDF's.

3. Add a link in your product page

Finally, go to your product page in Admin, and type in the term that will appear for the link - e.g. "Download Specs". Now highlight the term and click the icon in the toolbar that looks like a chain link.

You can now paste the URL from step 2 into the input field.

This technique works for blog pages as well.

Your typical Shopify theme is already compatible with the technical aspects of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), following the design guidelines that make it easy for search engines to index your content, but first they have to know about your site.

Submitting your Site

To get started, you need to submit your site to the search engine. Here are the links:

• http://www.google.com/webmasters
• http://www.bing.com/webmaster/
• https://developer.apps.yahoo.com/

Once you have submitted your site it is added to the queue so that their "spiders" will index it - normally after a few days.

Tuning your Keywords

While you are waiting, you might want to spend a few minutes tuning your page content to your specific keywords (you have specific keywords right?). You can get an idea of what the search engines are seeing by using this free tool: http://www.seomoz.org/term-extractor. It will analyze the content of your page and extracts the terms that the search engines are seeing. Hint: it doesn't hurt to run this tool over your competitors' sites as well, to see what they are using.

High quality content, tuned to your keywords, is the single most important factor for improving your organic search results.

Using Paid Search

You can also use paid search (i.e adwords aka PPC) to help your organic rankings by raising your quality score. For example, you can run a low budget adwords campaign that uses your keywords. Your initial quality score will be around 4-5 if you have decent content. If you follow the adwords help on improving the quality score to at least a 7 you will find your organic ranking will improve as well.

Linking

Another critical factor in your organic rankings is how many sites are linking to you. Search engines consider links as votes, but not all links are equal. An "authoritative" site, i.e. one that has a lot of links itself, will have a higher value.

Domain Age

The last thing I will mention is that Search Engines factor in the age of domains, which means you have to be around for a while, and patient. While we are on the topic, you should know that the GoogleBot loves to see fresh content as well, which is why blogs are so effective.

Bottom Line

My advice is to first and foremost create compelling and valuable articles on your blog, and have remarkable products. Then, make it easy for users to link to your site by using services such as addthis and Facebook Like on your pages.

First off, let's look at adding a link back to the blog listing page. Open up article.liquid in the Theme > Template Editor page in Admin, and add the following at the bottom of the page.

<a href="{{ blog.url }}">Back to {{ blog.title | escape }} articles</a>

Easy huh?

Next up, let's add links to the next and previous articles. 

Update: 8 days after publishing this article Shopify announced support for blog.next_article and blog.previous_article. The code below is no longer needed.

To do this we need to loop over the all the articles, using a variable to keep track of what the next and last articles were. Here is the code:

{% assign current_found = false %}
{% assign done = false %}
{% for a in blog.articles %}
	{% if current_found and done == false %}
		{% assign next_article = a %}
		{% assign done = true %}
	{% endif %}
	{% unless done %}
		{% if a.id == article.id %}
			{% assign current_found = true %}
		{% else %}
			{% assign prev_article = a %}
		{% endif %}
	{% endunless %}
{% endfor %}

You will now have access to two variables: next_article and prev_article. To use these add some code like this:

{% if prev_article %}
	<a href="{{ prev_article.url }}">Previous: {{ prev_article.title | escape }}</a>
{% endif %}

{% if next_article %}
	<a href="{{ next_article.url }}">Next: {{ next_article.title | escape }}</a>
{% endif %}

That's it. Two simple things to make browsing articles a little easier for your users.

Check it out:

• Help Desk home page
• Vanity Theme forum
• Seachify forum

We need your help!

We have developed javascript and liquid code that allows you to display and capture additional product attributes on the Shopify product.liquid and/or the cart.liquid pages. These attributes are carried through to the order and can be embedded in notification emails. This code has been refined by us over the years and used in many sites, and is now very robust and flexible.

If there is enough interest, we would like to offer this as a product and invest the time to document the code and methodology thoroughly. If this sounds like something you’d like to see us offer, please contact us or leave a comment, and let us know:

1. How much you think would be a reasonable price to pay?

• < $10
• < $50
• < $100

2. What about jQuery? Currently this is required.

• It’s Ok, I can deal with making it work with the other libraries my theme uses.
• It should work with any other library.
• jWhat?!

3. Would an installation service be of interest (at say $50)?

Thanks!

You can “buzzify” your Shopify store following these simple steps:

1. You need to have a Google profile page. Check yours out or create one here: http://www.google.com/profiles.
   
2. Open theme.liquid (in Admin > Assets > Theme Editor)


3. Look for the <head> and </head> HTML tags at the top of the file, then add the following code between them:
   <link rel="me" type="text/html" href="http://www.google.com/profiles/your.username"/>
   Replace your.username with your profile name.

4. Edit your profile page (http://www.google.com/profiles/me/editprofile) and click “Add A Custom URL” to claim the new site.

Now when you post a new blog article it will appear in your Buzz activity stream for all your followers to see.

The Product Page

The primary purpose of the home page is to display product images, describe the product, and ultimately to get your prospective buyer to add the product to the cart.

Main Elements

The overall look of the page should be simple, and easy to scan. Pages that look complicated or are too cluttered will quickly turn prospects away. The main elements in the design are the Product Title, Price and “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart” button, and should be displayed prominently. It is important that the add to cart functionality should look like a button. For the product description, think about presenting more detailed information progressively. For example, separate tabs can be used for the main product description and technical specifications.

Secondary elements to consider:

• Is is possible to specify a quantity?
• Is there a way to “share” the product with a friend or social networking site. A number of themes (including Vanity and Onyx) have built-in integration with sharing services.
• Product availability and delivery schedule should be shown if appropriate.
• Are links to your (or your manufacturer’s) guarantee or return policy provided?
• Trust badges are also good, potentially in the footer for the whole site not just the product page.
• Showing what payment methods are accepted is a great way to entice visitors. This may also be a good candidate for the footer.
• Is there a way to incorporate product reviews and ratings?

Images

Eye tracking studies show that images are always the first place people look when they land on the product page.

Here are some considerations for the product page images:

• Is the main product photo predominantly displayed.
• When you click on an image, can you navigate to the next or previous image without having to close the popup?
• Is there an “Click to Enlarge” link.
• Are thumbnails available, and is it obvious they are additional photos? Some themes display additional images as boxes, so it is easy to miss that these are additional product photos you can click on.

Navigation

Providing navigation links on the product page allows your visitors to quickly look at other products without having to go back to the collection page listing or search results. In particular, a “related products” section has become a standard on high performing e-commerce sites. Some ideas for product page navigation:

• Are related products shown.
• If you are viewing a product in a collection, are links to the previous and next product in the same collection available? Is there a link back to the collection (perhaps via a breadcrumb)?
• Is there a link to all products by this vendor?
• Is there a link to all products of the same type?